Red Bat
Red Bat 'is a collaborative writing project on Animanga and the first of such three projects, based around the subject of ''Vampires'. It was initiated by Mhadick, based on the ideas and character designs of Takashi Okazaki (Afro Samurai) with Hiroaki Ikegami and Masao Maruyama (Ninja Scroll, Trigun) serving as executive producers. Over twenty users collaborated on this project, with about seven regulars. Overview The year is 2020, where vampires live in co-existence with humans, thanks to an artificial beverage called 'Red Bat' that allows them to survive without human blood, considering it unsanitary. Despite this, however, a human supremacist group called the Vanarchists are plotting the downfall of vampiries, especially targeting the Red Bat corporation. While this is happening, a young vampire/werewolf hybrid known as the Vanarchist would investigate a series of werewolf murders, being later joined by a mixture of vampires, werewolves and humans, including Rose 'the girl' Macdonald, a human pro-rider for Red Bat connected to the Vanarchists, and Sander 'The rival' Fitzpatrick, a member of the vampire vigilant corps the BBP who also performed undercover work within the Vanarchists, as they would uncover a conspiracy tied directly into the heart of Red Bat as well as the Vanarchists that threatens the existence of all life on Earth. Plot 'Introduction' Dragomir Lovinescu, the CEO of Red Bat, is dealing with the latest attack by the Vanarchists, which involved a can of Red Bat being spilt in his office. Meanwhile, Gabriel King, a vampire/werewolf hybrid rap artist and fringe member of the Vanarchists, is finishing vandalising the statue of Governor Redwater. There he meets his Rival, Sander Fitzpatrick, but their confrontation is interrupted by Rose, who warns them of oncoming sirens, causing the three people to leave. Meanwhile, in the Vanarchist headquarters, a gathering occurs with their leader, known only as 'The Commander'. After being informed that 'The Vanarchist' had been sighted, the Commander, never happy with how people gave their name to a 'freak of nature', decides to place a bounty on him, offering the killer a place at his side, something that Rose so desperately wanted. At a nightclub called 'The Solar Eclipse', the Vanarchist meets up with Julius, a werewolf and friend who owned the club. As they talk about a series of 'werewolf murders', he introduces Gabriel to a woman named Bethany, who desparately needed to talk with him. 'Assault on Red Bat' At the Red Bat building, the Vanarchists beging assaulting the building, while the CEO had summoned the Rival to deal with them. While a large mob gathered outside the building, a black ops team led by "Visionary" infiltrate the building. The Rival is able to deal with some of the Vanarchists entering the building using booby traps. While killing many of them, he also attempts to rescue some vampires trapped under rubble, however the vampire he rescued succumbs to gunfire while he takes cover behind a desk. A SWAT team arrives to deal with the onslaught, while the Rival, with his mask on, disarms a couple of the vanarchists before taking on the leader of the mob, "Big Dog". The Rival calls him a hypocrite over willing to kill his own kind just to make Vampires look bad. Big Dog asks the Rival if he knows what's in the popular vampire beverage, to which the Rival reveals that he does in fact know, but it's not what Big Dog thinks, and that he has someone looking into it. Big Dog blows himself up with two grenades, while the Rival is driven back into the building by the Vanarchists. The SWAT team shoot the Vanarchists down, including the Rival, who, running out of bullets, pushes a desk against two men and runs for cover. Meanwhile, Gabriel is investigating further the werewolf murders. While coming across another victim, he encounters the Girl, who, although hostile at first despite thinking that the Vanarchist was 'cute', becomes less so after discovering that he's half werewolf. Gabriel also tells her about the werewolf murders, and how it is because of Red Bat, using them to create the Red Bat drink. The Girl, while aware of the werewolf murders, is skeptical over Gabriel's claim, who then tells her that Bethany, who turns out to be a werewolf, told him about how she and her family had been kidnapped by vampires in order to be experimented on. While tending to the body, Gabriel discovers that the sac that contains the werewolf venom had been extracted, which he believes is being added to Red Bat in order to make it more addictive. 'Aftermath' After the Vanarchist riot is subdued, press arrive to find out what happened. When one of the reporters brings up the rumour that werewolf brains were being used in Red Bat, the CEO denies the rumours as well as the werewolves' existence, although he seemingly contradicts himself by claiming that he wouldn't harm werewolves since his wife was one, ending the conference prematurely. In the crowd, two hooded men were observing the scene, the junior asking his boss, Efriend, in regards to what to do about the Vanarchists. Efriend decides to contact his 'rival'. Lovinsceu later discovers to his outrage that werewolves they were keeping prisoners had escaped, which was one of the Visionary's team's objective. The CEO, however, a very influential man, is able to use his influence he has over the media to turn public opinion against the Vanarchists. The Rival, wandering through the streets, overhears people talking about how bad the Vanarchists were. Knowing that Red Bat was just as bad, the Rival decides to end them both. Elsewhere, Gabriel also plans to take down Red Bat, with the Girl, Rose, joining him, changing her mind about killing him after what he told her about the werewolf murders. Gabriel's phone rings, and he is contacted by Efriend, who offers his assistance in uncovering the Red Bat conspiracy. Arriving at the docks, Gabriel, who is met up with by Julius, Bethany, and a vampire called Patricia, confront a man who is holding Rose against her will. Efriend overpowers the man, and reveals himself to be the Rival. Julius identifies him as Sander Fitzpatrick, a regular at the Solar Eclipse. Sander tells Gabriel of an approaching civil war, but due to his connection to the Vanarchists as well as being a vampire and werewolf, he can help bridge the sides. Gabriel, however, exposes Efriend as a fake, smelling red bat on him yet knowing that the Rival never drinks the 'red junk'. Ripping off his mask, the vampire-werewolf hybrids reveals him to in fact be a Vanarchist, who is then shot with a truth serum by the real Rival. Tabitha, a member of an organisation that seeks to keep peace between all of the races known as the United Species Society, reveals herself and injects Efriend with an antidote that will enable him to drink Red Bat again. She explains to the group that werewolf blood was given voluntarily when Red Bat production was first begun, but that it shouldn't be needed anymore, and reveals that there is someone behind the CEO who is using werewolf blood for another purpose, and that there is someone behind the Vanarchists too, someone not seen since the 'Curse of Justinian', an event where a vampire warlock named Baron Justinian and Byzantine mages used fairies only for them to wreak havoc including a plague, leading to their sealing. The group assumes that Justinian is behind everything, and later discover that he is actually the fairy king Arborius. Meanwhile, the Vanarchists' meme campaign "Red Bat's Secret ingredient", although failing to win over the majority of the public (Despite seemingly turning them against Red Bat earlier with photographic evidence of the Red Bat labs and first hand accounts of several werewolves' treatment, with many turning against vampires in general), does gain the support of hardcore supporters, and at another rally the Commander reveals his plan to release a chemical that will stop vampires from ingesting Red Bat, forcing them to choose being dead or revealing to be monsters. Later at the headquarters, however he sees hundreds of impaled Vanarchist bodies, taking this as a sign that the war has begun. 'Civil War and Infiltrating the Red Bat building' The BBP attempt an assault on the Vanarchist headquarters, only to be lead into a trap and be systematically slaughtered. However, one agent, responsible for the massacre of Vanarchists earlier, continues his onslaught against the Vanarchists, bearing unnatural speed and strength, having been sent to eliminate the werewolf witnesses. Meanwhile Vanarchists have been attacking schools, academies and colleges with ther red bat inhibitor chemical, targeting the 'next generation' of vampires. The army blockaded most of the cities in New York and New Jersey, hunting down Vanarchists. Efriend's young assistant, Niflheim, disillusioned over the exposure of his boss' true identity, comes across Gabriel's group and asks that he either helps them stop the chaos or kill him. Gabriel, however, chooses neither, and later tosses Niflheim a gun, telling him to use it to either help them or kill himself with it. Bethany discovers that Arborius was known to use werewolf brains in mass hypnosis spells. The BBP blockade the Red Bat Building, UN headquarters and city hall, with Vanarchist related fighting breaking out all over the world. Gabriel, Rose and Sander infiltrate the Red Bat building, eventually coming to the CEO's office. Noticing his Vamp-Pomeranian, Gabriel realises that he's not an ordinary dog, which reveals himself to be Arborius. 'Battling Arborius and the Nuclear missile strike' Arborius, the last fairy who was driven insane over the wiping out of his race, opens up the floor, threatening to drop all three into a chemical processor that produces the fairy king's own formula of Red Bat, with Gabriel grasping at the ledge with Rose and Sander holding onto his legs. Although at first unwilling to reveal his plan, Arborius changes his mind, and tells them that he planned to create a weapon of mass destruction and cause all of the races to wipe each other out in a war, before mentioning that humanity has already created such a weapon, with the president launching a nuclear missile strike on New York. Arborius revealed that he plans to use the power of the nuclear weapons combined with the magical device that runs on the werewolf brain addled Red Bat to perform a spell that will wipe out all life on Earth as an act of revenge over what happened to his kind. Gabriel had managed to climb out of the pit, just when Zero, the Red Bat hitman responsible for the werewolf murders and extracting their brain sac, arrives. Sander battles him, which eventually lead to him stabbing the assassin to death. The CEO, breaking out the trance that Arborius trapped him in, knocks him into the fire below. A mystical force transports Gabriel to the roof of the Red Bat building, where he faces off Arborius, who had survived his fall and become plant-like. With his men completely wiped out by vampires and werewolves, the Commander escapes from the headquarters, only to come across Julius, Niflheim, Bethany and Patricia, with Julius throwing him out of the building to his death. To their shock, however, he survives the fall, and reveals himself to actually be a werewolf named Vseslav De Vrkolak. Bethany, seeing the nuke that was heading for New York, hacks into the government's computers, redirecting the nuke into space before joining the fight against the Commander. During the battle, Vrkolak claimed that he formed the Vanarchists in order to protect werewolves after learning what Red Bat was doing to them, and cannot understand how werewolves could side with vampires, eventually telling them that 'if you side with them, then you die with them!' During the battle he over powers three of them while backing Sander against a wall. Before he can strike, however, Niflheim comes to his aid, ending up getting slashed by Vrkolak but giving Sander a chance to finish off the Commander. However the Commander manages to disarm him, with Julius and Bethany coming to his aid. Finding that the nuclear strike had been diverted, General Redwater however is able to fry Bethany's computer, and orders the launching of three more nukes. Bethany, however, was able to turn off the power of any missiles before it got fried. Niflheim, clutching his wound, points out more nuclear missiles coming their way anyway, but before Bethany can do anything a vine from Arborius hangs down, wraps itself around and snaps her neck. Julius, enraged, is given the adrenaline boost to defeat the Commander, ripping him to shreds with his pieces dissolving. He revives her by snapping her neck back into place. While Gabriel and Arborius battle each other, Rose rides in and activates the spikes on her wheels to cut Arborius by the root. Gabriel, in werewolf form, grabs him with his teeth. Arborius reveals himself to be the reason why there still nukes coming, just as Gabriel punched him numerous times in the face before he and Rose threw him off the building. With the nukes still coming and Bethany's computer fried, Gabriel confronts the CEO, thinking that he can do something to save the city. Although Lovinsceu denies that he can do anything, Patricia informs Gabriel that there's a sword in the CEO's office that can kill Arborius. Gabriel grabs this sword, which identifies itself as the weapon that killed all the other fairies. While Rose tries to keep Arborius from escaping, Gabriel arrives with the sword. Suddenly he hears a voice that motions him to attack Rose, however he breaks out of the trance and uses it to finish off Arborius. The nuclear missiles that were coming turn out to be just an illusion: save one, which hits the city. Instead of killing anyone, however the energy is absorbed by Arborius' device, which was charging up in order to be activated. The CEO prepares to activate a force field that would contain the explosion within the Red Bat building, sacrificing himself in the process, giving Gabriel and Rose fifteen minutes to escape at the helepad. With the building suddenly glowing (Despite the fact that the CEO told them they had fifteen minutes), Gabriel morphs back into wolf form, swings Rose on his back and slides down the side of the Red Bat building, using his claw to anchor himself, jumping off to the ground just as the explosion detonates. With Arborius seemingly destroyed, his influence over people are broken, and they stop fighting. Gabriel and Rose become a couple. Having come to terms with his vampiric identity, Gabriel drops his Vanarchist name and rechristens himself as the Bat. Category:Red Bat